As summer slowly continues to play out, Apple engineers are toiling away at iOS 7, gearing-up for the expected release this fall. Every few weeks, that means seeing a new iOS 7 beta arrive, and today marks the debut of beta 4. As usual, there are plenty of little tweaks, fixes, and changes – which we’ll get to in a minute – but there’s also now evidence in support of the long-standing rumors that the iPhone 5S will have a fingerprint scanner.

While that rumor’s been around forever, it started to sound a little shaky in recent weeks – we heard that both Apple and Samsung were running into production issues related to component shortages. Nevertheless, software support appears to be in place, with this new iOS beta adding a BiometricKitUI directory containing resources describing fingerprint graphics and illustrations apparently directing users to place their thumb on the home button for scanning.

As for the rest of the changes, performance reportedly gets a nice kick, with faster response times system-wide, a number of icons see design changes, and there are new settings all over the place, like in the Notification Center and Game Center. There are also new music playback options, some modifications to the Camera UI, and changes to how user names display for messaging.

Stephen has been writing about electronics since 2008, which only serves to frustrate him that he waited so long to combine his love of gadgets and his degree in writing. In his spare time, he collects console and arcade game hardware, is a motorcycle enthusiast, and enjoys trapping blue crabs. Stephen's first mobile device was a 624 MHz Dell Axim X30, which he's convinced is still a viable platform. Stephen longs for a market where phones are sold independently of service, and bandwidth is cheap and plentiful; he's not holding his breath. In the meantime, he devours smartphone news and tries to sort out the juicy bitsRead more about Stephen Schenck!